SHILLONG, June 9 ? While militancy related violence appear to be declining in Nagaland and Manipur the hotbed of insurgent activities in the North-east, extremism is growing disturbingly in the hitherto peaceful states of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Latest statistics of extremist-related activities in the North eastern states, released by the Union Home Ministry, confirm the new trend. From a mere 14 incidents of extremist related violence in Meghalaya in 1997, the number of such incidents shot up to 70 in 2001. A total of 37 militants were killed during the period with the highest number...

GUWAHATI, June 9 ? Despite a resolution passed in the State Assembly and demands by a delegation of the State Legislators, the Union Commerce Ministry is yet to take any step for the shifting of the headquarters of the tea companies and the office of the Tea Board from Kolkata to Guwahati.

In a memorandum to the Union Minister for Commerce and Industries, AGP legislator Sarbananda Sonowal and AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that despite being the largest tea producing State in the country, Assam was not getting its due benefits from the industry. As most of the headquarters of the tea...

GUWAHATI, June 9? The Chief Minister, Sri Tarun Gogoi, today allocated the portfolios to his expanded team of Ministers by trimming the portfolio of all the senior Ministers, while giving some key portfolios like Industries and Education to several of the newly inducted Ministers. The Chief Minister has kept with himself the key departments of Home, Finance, Tourism and Culture and all other departments not specifically allocated to any other Minister. He has also trimmed the portfolios of several senior Ministers including Dr Bhumidhar Barman, Sri Sarat Barkataky, Dr Hemoprova Saikia, Sri G C...

Imphal, June 09: The Union minister of tribal affairs, Jual Oram has said that the Government has decided to include 140 castes as Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950. Out of this list 43 additions are fresh, 66 synonymous, one each on account of bifurcation of entries and clubbing of entries, two as a result of change of nomenclature, two on account of verbal correction, one on account of local language and 16 exclusion, a PIB press release said. Oram told pressmen in New Delhi that the fresh list to be notified was worked out and approved by the Union Cabinet...

Imphal, June 08: Setting a trend for other political parties to follow suit and with an aim to project an image of a clean party untainted by corruption and graft charges, the State unit of the CPI has gone ahead and declared the assets and wealth of its MLAs and Ministers. The CPI is a constituent partner of the ruling SPF Government and has five MLAs. The assets of the Ministers and MLAs were announced during a press conference held at Irabot Bhawan today. Save for IFCD Minister N Mangi all the other four CPI MLAs, Ph Parijat, Dr N Nara, M Nabadwip and M Tomba were present at the conference...